- Use
curl
to get the JSON response for the latest release - Use
grep
to find the line containing file URL - Use
cut
andtr
to extract the URL - Use
wget
to download it
curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/jgm/pandoc/releases/latest \
| grep "browser_download_url.*deb" \
| cut -d : -f 2,3 \
| tr -d \" \
| wget -qi -
For a specific repository a single line to do the task can be created. BUT for a general repository, well, what is needed is next to impossible to do in one line, or even in a small script. There are always weird exceptions. I have seen many of them!
The general request that was made, was so general, it is also impossible to achieve. No one answer, or one simple line is itself a complete answer. So you get a multitude of answers, each of which will work for specific cases.
"Simplicity has a habit of expanding into catastrophe."
-- Anne McCaffrey, "The Ship who Sang"
In seeking the unattainable, simplicity only gets in the way.
-- Alan J. Perlis